President of India, Pratibha Patil, today approved the recommendation of the government for the appointment of Navin Chawla as the next Chief Election Commissioner of the country.
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Chawla at present is an Election Commissioner and will take over as the new post from N Gopalaswami onApril 21. N Gopalaswami’s term is expiring on April 20 this year.

This approval comes just days after the President rejected a controversial recommendation by CEC Gopalaswami for the removal of Chawla as Election Commissioner.

The President accepted the recommendation of the government for rejection of the CEC’s report on January 31 against Chawla. Chawla has been accused by many of being biased in favour of Congress party.

This decision of the President came as no surprise since the government had made it clear before that the CEC was not empowered to seek removal of a fellow Commissioner except if a Presidential reference was made to him.

Chawla is an IAS officer of 1969 batch and he was appointed as EC in May 2005 and will serve in the poll panel till 2010.